The nearly six-year search for Madeleine McCann must continue as DNA tests proved that a New Zealand lookalike is not long missing British girl.
McCann was 3 years old when she vanished during a family vacation in Portugal in 2007. Her parents returned from eating in a tapas restaurant with friends to their Praia da Luz rental to discover their daughter was gone.
The New Zealand girl was mistaken twice for McCann last year. On New Year's Eve, a retailer became suspicious that the child shopping with her father might be McCann, the Daily Mail reported.
She had the same rare eye defect as McCann called Coloboma that makes the iris look like it's split, according to Radio New Zealand.
"Following a DNA submission, we are now satisfied that the girl identified is not Madeleine McCann," said a spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Scotland Yard requested assistance from New Zealand law enforcement to rule out that the possibility that the unidentified youngster was McCann. Their investigation into McCann's disappearance is called Operation Grange.
False sightings of the blond-haired, hazel-eyed girl have sprung up around the world.
Portuguese police shut their investigation in 2008, Sky News reported, but her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have kept up a self-financed search.
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